Astrophiz 22: Parkes Dish Chases Gravity Waves, Aliens & FRBs - Nadezhda on Stellar Evolution

Astrophiz 22 is out now on Soundcloud or subscribe in iTunes Part II: The Parkes ‘Dish’ interrogates pulsars to expose gravity waves. We interview Operations Scientist John Sarkissian at the CSIRO Parkes Radio Observatory. He explains how the ‘Spider Dipoles’ that make up the Murchison Widefield Array in remote Western Australia contribute to SKA, how Parkes chase down gravity waves and has detected most of the world’s FRBs (fast radio bursts of unknown origin), after being distracted by ‘perytons’ and microwave ovens. And yes, ‘The Dish’ is searching for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in the international SETI ‘Breakthrough Listen’ project. We’re not saying they’re searching for Aliens ….. but Aliens! Dr Nadezhda in Part I of Stellar Evolution explains how the mass of a star determines its evolutionary path, and next week we will look at the Hetsprung-Russell Diagram “What”s Up in the Sky this Week” for Northern Hemisphere observers and astrophotographers, and for Southern Hemisphere Listeners, December is the best time to see the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud. We also expose Procyon and curse the moon for demolishing the Geminids Meteor Shower In the News: 1. The Spiderweb galaxy 
2. Imaging a Black Hole Event Horizon 
3. ICRAR tells us the Universe is slowly becoming less energetic (Well, who isn’t ;)